Isago Ayako - Reach
by katherinekitkat13
Summary: Born from the ruthless clan of Isago, Ayako had one job, and that is to watch over Gaara, but for a different reason. Her mission, was to eliminate him if ever he poses a threat to the village. But how can she ever bury her blade in his neck knowing that all she ever wanted was to reach him, to be able to understand and ease his pain away. -Oneshot-


This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Naruto, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto. Everything aside from the original characters are created from the wonderful mind of Kishimoto.

Most of the following unrecognizable are original characters of mine, please bear with me I am still in the process of making the character profiles for an even better visualization.

Also, comments, suggestions, criticism, even just simple messages are welcomes, please feel free to message me anytime.

Thanks for reading!

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A small child of five stood against their windows, watching as kids her age had fun playing around the playground, doing all sorts of things, she wanted to play too. Violet eyes drifted to the edges of the playground where a small lonely figure stood behind, watching in solstice as the other kids played together.

'He's just like me' Ayako thought as her interest quickly shifted from the children playing to the red headed boy with a mark on his forehead, wearing the sad longing eyes she recognized everytime she would stare at herself in the mirror. Ayako's hand instinctively and unconsciously reached out to that lone kid's direction, as if outstretching her hands in his direction would make her reach him.

'Maybe if I wanted it enough, it'll reach him' Ayako thought as her outstretched arms reached the boy harder, wanting nothing but to reach him.

"Ayako, don't just stand around there, your father was already inspecting you at the training grounds moments ago." Ayako's mother, a strict woman who held the pride of the clan above anything else dragged her little daughter by the arm. Little Ayako's sleeves shifted to reveal gauze covered wounds littering her small hands and arms, wounds that resulted from the rigorous and gruesome training her clan puts her through, as if the pressure of being the heir of the clan is not enough.

The Isago clan is one the most respected clan in Sunagakure, a clan renowned for their expertise with wind techniques, but above all they were famed assassins.

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Two years later, Ayako sat meekly in front of her parents as she waited to her the news her parents had been dying to tell her since they returned from the village council meeting.

"Listen Ayako, you had been chosen by Lady Chiyo and Kazekage himself to guard Gaara, you know what that means don't you?" Ayako clenched her hands as shock flooded her entire body. It was an assignment unique to their clan, that when they are tasked to 'guard' someone, they had not meant to protect their charge. No, to the people that hailed from the great clan of Isago, to guard someone it to watch their every moment, waiting for a perfect slip up, enough to give them the reason to kill their charge.

That was the Isago fate, and hers wasn't a unique one. What made her entire being shook down to its every fiber was the charge she was assigned to…

…Sabaku no Gaara; the boy she had been watching in the crevices of the dark in secret, hands always held out, hoping that someday she might be able to reach him.

Her parents didn't wait for the news to sink in, as they stood up and expectantly waited for her to follow in their example as she obligingly stood before them, absentmindedly following their footsteps, just like every other aspect in her life, including her life itself.

As a matter of fact she was still totally out of it until her parent stopped and knelt in respect, her mother pulling her arm to force her to follow in their stead. Only then did she realize her parent had lead her in the audience of the third kazekage himself. Behind him, stood his children, the two older ones, Temari and Kankuro stood directly behind their father, but her attention wasn't on neither of them, but focused on the third child behind the ranks, the red haired boy with the angry eyes, who stared at her with disdain.

However, instead of scaring her, it made her urge of wanting to reach him grow stronger, the urge to know his pain and ease them, to let him know that he wasn't alone, that she's here, if only she'd let him be.

Only fate didn't smile upon them as she is now sworn to be the one that ends his life the moment he endangers the entire village. Ayako looked at the kazekage, a man who bared the same red hair that Gaara adorned. He had a stoic and stern face, the testament of time and the experience in battle already beginning to take evidence on his face as he stared down at her small form.

Raza stared at the child of Isago before them and he had never seen anyone tinier than Gaara in his life, but he knew better than to underestimate the little girl, especially since she is from the esteemed clan. Already her hands are wrapped in bandages as a result of her rigorous training, and even though she was small, she was far from frail.

The fourth kazekage didn't say anything to Ayako, not that Ayako wanted him to, but she was curious about the relationship between him and his youngest son, but then again who was she to judge, she had both parents but it was far from perfect.

Raza simply nodded and left the room, with Lady Chiyo in his tail, then his two older children. Once the kazekage had left, Ayako's parents didn't deem it necessary to stay any longer and left, leaving Ayako in the room with Gaara.

Two children simple stared at each other, one slit with anger and disdain and one wide with curiosity and awe, but nonetheless still stared at each other. Ayako didn't know how to start, for one she had never talked to anyone outside their family, and conversations around her family usually just involved instructions and training.

"My name is Isago Ayako, I just turned seven this year too, Gaara" Ayako said, her voice sounding way too cheerful to be real, however, it hit the objective of getting his attention as he finally focused on her eyes, looking shocked yet still angry, surprising Ayako.

"Um, do you prefer if I call you Gaara-sama" Ayako asked, her voice a little softer, internally cursing herself for neglecting that small factor, but she was nervous, there wasn't an instruction or guideline on how to converse with a person you have been literally stalking for years.

In the midst of her internal conflict, Gaara's angry eyes softened a little.

"No" was the only thing he said and Ayako didn't need to hear more. She smiled, this time genuinely this time. For now, it didn't matter if Gaara returned her smiles, or even answered questions, because today all that mattered was that she was closer to Gaara, closer to reaching him.

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Raza stared down at his youngest son sit and watch his keeper as Ayako train their family specialty wind type ninjutsu. It had only been a year and already the effects of stationing Ayako in her post. Casualties around Gaara had drastically dropped to zero, even the academy hasn't experienced any incident in the entire year. However, the incidents of which the warden child is hospitalized increased just as drastically. Already bandages adorning the small girl's arms were doubled, it wouldn't take a genius to connect the two incidents together, Ayako had been intervening with Gaara's tantrums and had been on the receiving end of it.

He couldn't count the times the girl had been on deaths door in one hand because of his son, however, what is most intriguing was that at every death defying encounter, Gaara would stop the last minute giving Ayako the chance to be able pull through. Furthermore, Ayako wasn't even oblige to save Gaara's victims from him, as a matter of fact, Gaara's rampage is the perfect opportunity for Ayako's mission as his sentinel to be considered accomplished, instead she stood by him every chance, stopping him from slipping up.

Raza's thoughts were interrupted when Ayako stopped with her training and slowly approached Gaara.

"The sensei told us to improve on out taijutsu, would you like to try?" Ayako asked. Gaara didn't reply, neither verbal nor gestural, however the young red head stood up, before Ayako.

The girl had guts and Raza recognized the way Ayako fearlessly advanced against Gaara, repeatedly getting caught up in his sands, earning her a few more wounds and bruises from her charge.

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The sand sibling had just come home from a b-rank mission outside the village. These circumstances were one of the rare instances that Ayako and Gaara are separated; when either one is on a mission, however, the councils tend to match Ayako and Gaara's schedule, they didn't want Gaara in the village without Ayako watching over him. Although Ayako is doing a banged up job of her real intent, to kill Gaara whenever he slips up, they cannot deny the fact that ever since Ayako was stationed at Gaara's side, there had been less occurrences of Gaara losing it and even less incident of anyone getting hurt, much less killed.

But this day was different, Ayako and her team had taken an unexpected turn of events during their mission, therefore lengthening the mission, ergo Gaara and the his siblings arrived Sunagakure even before Ayako and her team did, and that did not sit well with Gaara.

He was already in a foul mood, however, when she hadn't seen Ayako anywhere, he was unbearable to be with, henceforth, his siblings leaving him to do anything and everything just to not be with him at the moment.

Ayako arrived two days after the sand siblings arrival to Sunagakure, all well and doing fine, as if they didn't run into any trouble at all, as if they had purposely taken a detour to prolong the absence. That were only some of the thoughts that ran inside Gaara's head, some of it his, and some not from his own conscious as he watched from afar.

As expected, then squad's sensei directed them all to the kazekage's office to report the events of their mission. Gaara stood there on his nook watching the team carefully with hateful eyes of betrayal.

' _They seem fine, maybe they purposely too longer so that the girl didn't have to return to you'_ A voice in his head said, evading his thoughts, planting malicious thoughts inside his head.

' _She never wanted to be with you in the first place, she was just forced too. Remember why every time you try and kill she stops you, to her you're a monster'_ The voice continued for so long, from the moment he lost sight of Ayako and her team as they entered the building, to the time they exited the premises.

"Yow, Ayako you did a pretty great job out there," the taller member said patting her back. The other member wrapped an arm around Ayako's head in a brotherly fashion, ruffling and messing up her hair.

"Yeah what was that amazing wind technique you used on the fire, it was amazing. I thought wind was supposed to be weak against fire, but you managed to surpass that handicap" the shorter one praised, and Ayako both smiled and laughed at her teammates, the feeling of happiness bubbling inside of her. Majority of her time was spent with Gaara and she sometimes wondered what her teammates think of her since the only time she really got to be with them is during missions.

Gaara watched growing more hateful at the sight in front him, he didn't realize the sand had moved with the flow of his emotions, including the destination.

Ayako heard it before she even saw it, the subtle movement of sand against the wind, so quiet it was barely audible, but Ayako had been with Gaara for so long that she knew what this meant, sand don't go against the wind on their own volition. She acted quick, surrounding herself with a gush of wind pushing all of her teammates away from her, and their positions as far away as possible, effectively saving them from the sand coffins prepared to engulf all three of them.

Gaara felt himself angrier and more hateful when Ayako pushed her teammates away from him sand. Without hesitations or thoughts, Gaara resumed attacking his targets, almost succeeding in burying their bodies in sand if it wasn't for Ayako who wrapped them up with small yet violent winds, so violent that Gaara's sand had been split up to their tiny dust particles before they can even make contact.

"Gaara stop this please, they did nothing wrong!" Ayako said trying to gain Gaara's attention, and unfortunately succeeding. By now Gaara's emotions are so high up now, he can no longer see the veil between all of his enemies and his sole ally. He was so focused on his anger that he didn't have a care nor knowledge of who he is attacking, or trying to kills.

"Ayako!" her teammates tried to escape her wind prison to help her, but to no avail, Ayako had specifically set that technique to protect them not only from Gaara, but also from themselves and making stupid decisions and attacking Gaara.

Ayako stared at Gaara's expression and it didn't take her two seconds that her words would fall on deaf ears. She frowned and slowly released the bandages wrapped around her arms, preparing to once again go against Gaara in a fight without really hurting him. Ayako lunged herself towards Gaara, carefully avoiding his sand. Ayako blasted gushes wind against Gaara's barrage of sands rushing towards her.

"Futon: rain of petals" Ayako said and sent a rain, with the combination of sharp petals and razor winds, slicing through everything like butter, even Gaara's ultimate shield. Gaara groaned and fell to his knees,

Ayako stopped her onslaught of attacks, looking over to Gaara with worry, she didn't want to hurt too much that he will have to resort to his last line of defense, but he had transgressed to fast she needed to take action fast or else the shukaku will reveal itself.

Ayako was too worried with Gaara's well-being she did not notice the sand pooling at her feet until it surrounded her body and constricted her like a boa. Her movement were first to be restricted, then her breathing, Soon she can no longer do anything with her voice but groan and then came the screaming that fell deaf on her ears as she slowly lost track of everything around her, then finally black spots littered her vision and soon she had slowly lost grip of reality or anything at all.

Gaara was fuming, Shukaku was reveling in the thought of finally killing the girl who had always been in his way of getting free of this child, but as soon as Ayako lost her consciousness, her teammates were set free from her technique.

"Ayako!" a woman's voice broke through Gaara's consciousness, that voice being his wake up call, but it was the name being screamed. Gaara slowly returned to his senses, but by the time he had gained full control of himself, Ayako was lying bruised and bloody in her sensei's arms as they rushed her to the hospital.

Again…

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"This has been the eleventh time that the girl has been sent to the hospital. She's digging an early grave for herself, if she keeps this up, she'll be lucky if she lives past seventeen, heck she's luvky to even live through the night" Baki said as she eyed the report of Gaara's latest rampage earlier that day.

"You can't blame the girl if she wants to risk her life for the child. As far as everyone is concerned, she is following her orders to the letter. Her mission is that if Gaara poses as a threat, and we had not experienced a single incident since she was instated as Gaara's warden" another member of the council said.

"And we still need Gaara for what we plan, if we want to succeed"

"But can we really proceed with the operation if the Isago child cannot partake in the operation"

"What's her status?"

"She's still in the ICU unit, the doctors say she would be there for quite some time"

"Then we shall proceed without the Isago girl"

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Ayako laid on her hospital bed staring at the desert horizon, she had been in the hospital for a while now, too long that when she woke up, the beaten troops sent to Konohagakure returned home, so long that the council had announced assassination of the kazekage at the hands of the man they thought to be their friend, Orochimaru, has been announced long before her first sight of light. No matter how Ayako tried to grasp the concept, she just couldn't get her head around the fact that she has been unconscious for more than a month.

Their siege against Konoha had been a humbling experience for them, from their utter defeat to the revelation that their beloved fourth kazekage had been betrayed and assassinated by Orochimaru. Despite her parents, being a part of the casualties of these failure, since they were a part of the Kazekage's guards, Ayako didn't even felt grudge against Konohagakure, in her opinion it had been a poor decision on their part. A mistake they had all concocted, and this is the part where they all swallow what they had all prepared for themselves.

She wondered how the events of their plan unfolding to its failing occurred, and thought to herself, could the turn-out be different if she had been there? But who was she kidding, if Baki was sure enough to decide leaving her wouldn't be that big if a deal then her presence during the siege won't have made any difference. However, Ayako can't seem to get rid of the fact that she should have been there for Gaara.

Days prior to their deployment, something ticked off Gaara, Ayako couldn't even remember what is was or why it happened in the first place, but his rampage, mortally wounded Ayako, sending her straight to the ICU for a few days, and confined in the hospital until long after the time the envoy has returned.

Right now Ayako couldn't care less about their defeat or the death of the kazekage, all she cared about was Gaara and how he was doing. She heard the gossips going around, how he faced his first defeat, reduced to the ground, immobile. Gaara has never faced difficulty in battle, much less defeat, and Ayako wanted to know how he was doing.

The door of her hospital room opens all of a sudden, yanking her from her thoughts. When she turned to look at her visitor, her breathing hitched and her heart skipped a beat. She didn't expect Gaara would visit her at all.

Gaara stared at Ayako's form, looking worse for wear. Her right arm was in a cast, same foes for her right leg, and several bandages wrapped around her so much that she could have been mistaken for a mummy. Gaara tried to recall the last time he had seen her; the day before they left for Konoha, she was being carried by a concerned ninja away from him, all bloody and bruised, barely hanging on to life, sent straight to the ICU where she continued her battle for a few more days, only this time her enemy was death.

No permanent damage was done, except for the new scars that she added to her collection, but her wind pipe was almost crushed, so much that her voice was raspy up until now, several ribs broken. Broken bones everywhere, which was thankfully not crushed. Needless to say, Ayako had yet again survived Gaara's wrath.

"Gaara!?" Ayako exclaimed her voice raspy, it was almost too painful to listen to, as he stared at her, and all he can remember were the times that Ayako was there for her, intervening every chance she got whenever he almost lost it, even after he lost it, Ayako made sure that Gaara wouldn't hurt anybody but her.

' _So we're back to this girl again! Didn't you hear? Her primary objective is to assassinate you! She hates you! Just like everybody else does!"_ Shukaku yelled inside his head.

' _No, Ayako was doing it more for me than anyone else, by saving others from me, she is making sure that she doesn't have to raise a hand against me'_ Gaara replied back.

Ayako didn't know it, but she can definitely feel it, the difference in Gaara. His eyes were no longer angry and hateful, but now it was calm, almost thoughtful, quite as if like he didn't have a tailed beast raging inside of him. But he didn't speak, as always he was as quiet as ever, and it didn't bother Ayako that he didn't talk to her, in fact it didn't bother her that she can count the words Gaara has spoken to her since they met in the fingers of her hands.

What shocked her even more was when Gaara reached out for her hand that had no cast and held in in his. She didn't know what to do, she wanted to speak, but no words came out of her bruised throat, she also found herself completely immobilized, her injuries notwithstanding.

"I'm sorry" Gaara said almost too quietly, but Ayako didn't need to hear his apology out loud, for his hands, his eyes already spoke to her in volume. Ayako smiled and released her hand from his hold. At first Gaara can feel the pain of rejection as her hands retracted away from him, but he wanted to stay strong, he wanted to show Ayako that anger is not all that he is.

Ayako was not a stupid person, but lately she has held no knowledge of the reason nor the consequences of her action, especially now when her hand began to extend its way towards Gaara. The only thing she knew was she had wanted to do this for a long time, and that it feels right, so she let go of the thoughts of reason and consequences and reached.

Gaara felt the warm hand against his face before he even noticed it. He looked up to see Ayako smiling warmly and gently at him, her form looking even more glorious as the sun shined behind her. Ayako drew herself closer to Gaara, too close that they can feel each other's breath against the other, too close that they could see each other's presence without even looking. Gaara returned the sentiment and drew closer to Ayako until their foreheads met. For a while they did nothing but stay like that, foreheads touching, noses grazing at each other, speaking a thousand conversations all at once without even uttering a single word.

They could feel it repentance, redemption, comprehension, confirmation, reception, and so much many other things that only the two of them would hear, or rather feel from the other.

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Here it is the little Ayako and Gaara Back Story Gaiden, about their history together, I'm also working on a Sasori of the Red Sand Gaiden regarding his thoughts of his death, again if it's your cup of tea please check it out, until then, Ciao!.

P.S: Feel free to talk to me in the messages and I'll try to reply faster than my uploads


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